Erica Brown

On a cold dark New England winter night it was rewarding to see a capacity crowd turn out to hear, Erica Brown and the Bluegrass Connection perform at the Grass Roots Coffee House in Northbridge, Mass. It was the largest crowd ever at the venue. Erica and the band covered some Country, Folk, Pop and Bluegrass music. Although the set was all Bluegrass to my ears because it had the precise bluegrass baseline played by our friend Ken Taylor and the instruments were the standard Bluegrass instruments. There was some original music written by Matt Shipman who played lead guitar and sang the harmony parts and some lead vocal. The band did covers of the Louvin Brothers, Allison Krauss, Bill Monroe, and Gillian Welch and others. Erica showed her fiddling prowess on several French Canadian reels and displayed her fine voice on the many ballads of the set.
The bands performance was tight and right with Matt on guitar and Read McNamara playing banjo and for a few tunes the dobro. The entire audience stayed put through intermission waiting for the second set which says something about the quality of the entertainment, I was impressed with the harmony of this group, especially when they did four part harmony with only the guitar playing softly. If they're playing someplace near to you I'd recommend you stop by and take in their music. You can see Erica's schedule here

Erica Brown and the Bluegrass Connection

Erica Brown and Matt Shipman

Read McNamara

Ken Taylor